Keep Your Word

If you say you’ll do something, do it. If you fail to act as you said you would, go back to those you made promises to, clear the air, and do what you can to make the situation right.

Do this, but not for the benefit of those people, not because it is morally correct, and not because it fits the social script you have learned to follow. While these motivations may have merit, they are not the critical, essential reason that you must keep your word and make right your promises.

In order to be whole you must maintain a bond between what you say and how you act. When you break that bond, you weaken your credibility not only with others but with yourself. When the deepest parts of you realize that your promises to others mean nothing, they will no longer support you in keeping them, even when they are to yourself.

When we are stressed, when we are stretched thin to tearing, it is not what is right or wrong that we must be most attentive to. It is whether we have, at core, wholeness and integrity. A system that creates broken promises is a broken system.

Maintain your integrity. Hold precious your promises to others. Keep your word.